Saddle up your horses...

When I was growing up, my brother, his best friend, and I decided we were going to grow up to be cowboys and a cowgirl.  We would dress up in our boots and hats and play like we were out on the range, three friends living the life.  (That's how great my brother is and has always been- to include his little sister in his life's dream.) As part of this amazing plan for our lives, we loved to sing Steven Curtis Chapman's song, "The Great Adventure."  If you've heard it, you know what I'm talking about!  It was wildly exciting when the song would change on the tape and out comes, "SADDLE UP YOUR HORSES!" Imagine being a five year old kid with a dream to ride horses for a living!  I am listening to it as I write this and it is everything I can do not to bust out dancing in the middle of Panera.
All this to say, I am so excited about God's plan for my life, the Great Adventure that He has in store for me over the next months and years (and beyond).  In my last post, I mentioned having no direction for my future and being frustrated about that, but trusting that God would show me His plan in His perfect time.  I am overjoyed to say that over the past five months He has revealed so much of His plan for my next steps in life! A few things have happened:
1. I finished my speech pathology internship at Child Hearing Services, went from hating it to finding my niche, and decided to stay in school this spring to take prerequisites for grad school.
2. People starting coming out of the woodwork to talk to me about potentially going on intern staff with the Navigators (EDGE corps), which is something I have considered off and on throughout college but had thought I decided wasn't the path for me.
3. I prayed all of last semester that God would give me some direction by December, and unbeknownst to me, the day I unofficially decided to do EDGE was December 1st! (I realized this a couple of weeks later.)
4. I applied to the speech pathology grad program at UT a month past the deadline, and was still accepted!
5. God gave me the opportunity to choose between a) getting a head start on my career in my hometown of Knoxville, or b) spending a couple of years pursuing college students in the name of Christ, fundraising my salary, moving away to a big city, and a lot of other unknown stuff!
6. I chose the latter!!
I am so excited to go on EDGE corps with the Navigators. I know that in the next two years I will experience growth, rejection, joy, refinement, struggle, and hopefully deep, active, Christ-centered relationships  with younger women who develop a desire to further the kingdom of God. I am ready to saddle up my horses!

Saddle up your horses, we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our Leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other- this is the Great Adventure!